Vintage Erotica Double Feature: The Erotic Touch of Hot Skin (1966) / Bad Girls Do Cry (1965) (DVD)

Julian Prentice, a millionaire who lives on the French Riviera, is killed after he discovers his wife Irene with her lover, Mark. They barely have time to dispose of the body before Irene's cousin, Chloe, arrives for a visit. To allay suspicion, Mark pretends to be Julian, who Chloe never met. Eighteen, virginal, and prone to nude sunbathing, the precocious Chloe finds herself attracted to the older Mark...while Irene desperately tries to keep the secret of the man's true identity from the young girl. Some secrets cannot be kept, however. One of the three pleasure seekers Is on a collision course with death...

The Erotic Touch of Hot Skin began as La baie du desir, a 1964 French film starring Fabienne Dali (from Mario Bava's Kill Baby, Kill) and Sophie Hardy (who spends much of the picture stripping off her clothes.) In 1966, pioneering adult filmmaker Radley Metzger (The Opening of Misty Beethoven) re-edited and re-titled it The Erotic Touch of Hot Skin for American audiences. New striptease sequences, shot by Metzger, were incorporated into the narrative (meant to represent the "inner fantasies" of the three protagonists.) The film was advertised in some markets as The Erotic Touch or Touch of Skin.

BAD GIRLS DO CRY (1965): Sally Downs is an aspiring actress who moves to Hollywood seeking fame and fortune. She's stuck working 9-5 as a waitress until a man claiming to be a big-shot director walks in the door. The type of pictures he makes are hardly the kind you see at Grauman's Chinese Theater, though. Soon the innocent Sally is plying her ample assets for the skin trade...and hating every minute of it.

Bad Girls Do Cry was shot in 1954, but went unscreened until 1965 when it was released by the obscure distributor Jacqueline Kay, Inc. The director is credited as Sid Melton, though there is some dispute whether or not this is the same Sid Melton known for his supporting roles on beloved TV series like Captain Midnight (1954-1956), The Danny Thomas Show (1959-1964) and Green Acres (1965-1969). Leading lady Misty Ayres was cast because of her skills as a striptease artist (as attested to by how much of the film's running time she spends in her underwear.) Ben Frommer played a mourner at Bela Lugosi's funeral in Ed Wood's classic Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959).

Note: Due to the age and rarity of these films, some picture anomalies exist.

• mature